Cisco 400-007 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

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Let’s calculate total 1-year cost for each option using the provided table:

DWDM over dark fiber:

CAPEX = $250,000

OPEX (1 year) = $100,000

Installation fee = $30,000

Total = $250,000 + $100,000 + $30,000 = $380,000

CWDM over dark fiber:

CAPEX = $150,000

OPEX (1 year) = $100,000

Installation fee = $25,000

Total = $150,000 + $100,000 + $25,000 = $275,000

MPLS wires only:

CAPEX = $50,000

OPEX (1 year) = $80,000

Installation fee = $5,000

Total = $50,000 + $80,000 + $5,000 = $135,000

BUT: MPLS does not allow customer-controlled QoS policies as stated in the requirement (cannot run its own varying QoS profiles without SP interaction). Therefore disqualified.

Metro Ethernet:

CAPEX = $45,000

OPEX (1 year) = $100,000

Installation fee = $5,000

Total = $45,000 + $100,000 + $5,000 = $150,000

BUT: Metro Ethernet is also typically a service provider-managed solution where customer-controlled QoS is usually limited depending on SP capabilities. May not fully meet the requirement.

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The key technical requirement:

“Be able to run its own varying QoS profiles without service provider interaction.”

This clearly favors dark fiber solutions (CWDM and DWDM), as these give full Layer 1 control to the customer, allowing complete freedom in managing QoS, traffic engineering, and prioritization internally.

Among the two dark fiber options, CWDM over dark fiber is the most cost-effective choice for one year at $275,000.

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Therefore, final correct answer:

The SDN architecture separates the control plane from the data plane. In this model, the SDN controller is the central element responsible for:

Receiving application intent via northbound APIs

Translating intent into traffic policies

Communicating with infrastructure devices using southbound APIs

The SDN controller enforces policies such as path selection, QoS, and access control rules across the network fabric, ensuring traffic flows align with administrator-defined logic. Neither northbound nor southbound APIs enforce policy themselves; they serve as communication interfaces.

The packet forwarding engine (Option A) simply performs data-plane functions based on instructions, but does not interpret or apply policies.

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In the Cisco three-layer hierarchical design model (Access, Distribution, Core), the access layer is primarily responsible for:

Providing user/device connectivity.

Enforcing policy boundaries.

Performing QoS classification and marking at ingress.

The access layer is the optimal point to classify and mark traffic for QoS because:

It is the first point of entry into the network for end-user devices.

Markings can then be trusted by upstream devices (distribution and core).

This minimizes trust boundaries throughout the network and ensures consistent policy enforcement.

This design principle ensures end-to-end QoS consistency, a key objective emphasized in CCDE v3.1 for scalable and maintainable enterprise designs.

Why other options are incorrect:

A (Fault isolation): Typically handled at distribution/core layers.

C (Reliability): A general network-wide requirement, not specific to access.

D (Fast transport): Primarily a core layer function.

E (Redundancy and load balancing): Managed primarily at distribution and core layers.